LETTER: The conservative case for approving Westport override

I am a fiscal conservative who believes in limited government and low taxes. I believe that I can spend my dollar more efficiently than a bureaucrat sitting in Town Hall, the State House or Washington, D.C., and I am reluctant to send them more.

The Taunton Daily Gazette, Taunton, MA

Writer

Posted Jun. 6, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 6, 2012 at 6:19 AM

Posted Jun. 6, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 6, 2012 at 6:19 AM

» Social News

I am a fiscal conservative who believes in limited government and low taxes. I believe that I can spend my dollar more efficiently than a bureaucrat sitting in Town Hall, the State House or Washington, D.C., and I am reluctant to send them more.

But I also believe that town government serves a truly American purpose — a group of neighbors decides which services they want to provide collectively for their community and they pool their resources to pay for them. It would be a huge burden for each individual to pay separately for things like police, fire, education and library services and practically impossible to provide roads, veteran and senior services on our own.

So we get together, each contribute our hard earned money and, as a result, we have roads we can use to send our children off to our public schools, we borrow books via an interlibrary loan, and know that in an emergency someone will come when we call.

Westport has pinched pennies for so long that nearly every department is facing a budgetary crisis. We are not looking at new educational programs, cost-saving technology, or even providing routine building and equipment maintenance and refresh because there simply is not enough money in the budget.

Our community is not well served by partially funding functions we have already agreed are necessary, we need to fund them at a level that will ensure the services we need can actually be delivered.

These ballot questions will cost the average household less than $1 per day, more importantly, they will allow us to proactively plan our capital expenditures and stop dramatic cuts. I never thought I would actively support a tax increase, but here I am asking for your vote.